


Is That My Shirt?

by Rhysanoodle



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-17 20:51:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18106241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhysanoodle/pseuds/Rhysanoodle
Summary: Unfortunate circumstances force Elain to borrow one of Azriel's shirts. Fluff ensues.





	Is That My Shirt?

**Author's Note:**

> Requested by @jemma-nessian-and-elriel over on Tumblr.

“Shit, Elain mumbled as she tried futilely to mop the coffee out of her cream-colored sweater. She was already running late for class, and she was at Azriel’s apartment. She had nothing left to wear.

Elain and her sisters shared a small, rundown apartment a few miles away, but the commute to campus was a nightmare. So when her best friend Az had offered her a key to his apartment—to use to let herself in throughout the day as needed—newly renovated and a ten-minute walk from the biology building, who was she to refuse?

She didn’t live here, per se, but she did have a small drawer in his dresser for emergencies, which was currently empty, and she was cursing herself for not having done her own laundry sooner. Because now she was left with only the option of grabbing one of Azriel’s enormous, black shirts and hoping that with her jacket zipped, nobody would be any the wiser to her faux pas.

* * *

Four hours and one exhausting lab later, she slunk back through the front door, in desperate need of a late lunch before beginning to write up her lab report, which would probably take her a decent chunk of the rest of the day.

She passed by Azriel’s roommate, Cassian, in the kitchen who offered to fix her up a sandwich in between his final bites of his own.

“Is Az here?” Elain asked, as she made a beeline to his bedroom to unload her books onto the side of his desk which she had staked a claim upon.

“Oh, yes he is.” Cassian grinned wickedly at her, as she merely shrugged off his odd behavior and pushed her way into Az’s bedroom.

It took her a moment after relieving her aching shoulders of her pack to realize that she didn’t see him anywhere, despite Cassian’s loaded statement a minute ago.

Her eyes darted around, landing on the door to the adjoining bathroom which was ajar, the light shining invitingly from beyond it.

She eased her way over, and called out, “Az, are you okay?” in an attempt not to spook him accidentally by sneaking up on him. This was abnormal behavior, even for him.

“Shit.” She heard some clumsy fumbling, from a location still obscured from her vision before the door flew open to reveal Azriel, and he was wearing …

“Is that my shirt?!” Elain shrieked, flabbergasted. It was hugging his muscled abdomen to tightly, the wool stretching to the point where Elain was certain it would never regain its original shape.

“Listen, I’m sorry.” He tried to run his hand through his hair, but the sweater constricted his movement too thoroughly. “I must’ve just missed you this morning because I came home from my 9 o’clock and saw this on the vanity counter. I thought I’d wash it for you.”

“Okay … That still doesn’t explain why you decided to put it on.” Now that she took a closer look, Elain _did_ notice that it was stain-free.

“Cassian dared me,” Az mumbled, unable to look her in the eyes.

“Excuse me?”

“He saw me carrying it back to my room and dared me to try it on. Bet me fifty bucks that I couldn’t fit. It’s one of your looser ones, so I thought I had a shot, and I _did_ manage to get it on. Now I just can’t take it off.”

Elain’s hand flew up to her head, rubbing at her temples before she just sighed and beckoned him forward. “Come here. I’ll help you out of it.”

As sat on the edge of his bed as Elain tried to coax the sweater off his bulky form, but even with the wool stretched beyond belief, it sat too tightly on his muscled chest to budge.

Sighing, she finally grabbed a pair of scissors, and lamenting the loss of this favorite sweater, began cutting through the fabric on the back to free him.

“I hope that bet was worth it,” Elain mumbled as she worked.

Azriel’s shoulders tensed as he replied. “Honestly, not really. I’m going to have to spend all that money on a new sweater for you.”

“Damn right, you are,” she reprimanded him as she finished slicing through the back of the sweater and helped him peel the clinging sleeves off his muscular arms.

Finally, the tragedy of destroying her favorite sweater was over and she was stuck staring down a male whose tattooed chest was nothing short of perfection. It wasn’t that Elain never got a glimpse of it every now and then, but it was hardly ever so up close and personal, as he turned around to face her sitting on the bed.

Only inches from her own, Azriel’s face lit up, his golden eyes glowing with an intensity Elain rarely saw from him. “Is that _my_ shirt?” He tugged at the hem near her waist which was hanging out of her jacket. He was close enough that the scent clinging to his skin was assaulting her senses as she was sent straight to heaven.

She felt her face heat against her will as he turned the tables on her, tugging down the zipper to reveal his clothing gracing her skin.

“Stop. You’re making me blush,” she mumbled. “I had no choice anyways. I was running late.”

“It looks better on you,” Az murmured as he brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

Elain’s breath caught in her throat. The truth was that even through her miserable day, the knowledge that she had on Az’s shirt—which smelled divinely of _him_ —had kept a smile on her face. It hadn’t dawned on her until this moment though that she was loathe to give her new prized possession back to its rightful owner.

She glanced up to find his face inches from her own, the charge between them suddenly palpable, about to burst from anticipation.

And then he leaned in to kiss her, her heart taking flight as he sent her soaring with the soft caress of his lips. This was it. Life didn’t get any better than this moment, when somehow she reaffirmed the feelings which had been tugging at her gut, begging to be let out these past few months.

They had been best friends since high school, never crossing that line in the sand between them, and all Elain’s attempts to console herself, to wrestle her yearnings went out the window along with her self control as she found herself returning the kiss, and pushing him backwards until his back hit the bed beneath them.

As she came up for air, an equally bewildered Azriel gasped out, “I don’t know why I waited so long to do that.”

“Me neither.” Elain grinned as she leaned back in, Azriel’s shirt suddenly feeling like a barrier between them as she lay on his warm, bare chest and kissed him again.

Her ruined favorite sweater could rot for all she cared. It was a casualty in this war of hearts, and Elain wouldn’t have had this day go any differently.


End file.
